that we have most amazingly lagged behind in applying the moral laws
universally accepted in the relations of individuals. For instance,
long before this War began we heard it proclaimed, even proudly, by
certain philosophers, in more than one nation, that the state is the
supreme spiritual unit, that there is no law higher than its interest,
that the state makes the law and may break it at will. When a great
statesman in Germany, doubtless in a moment of intense anger and
irritation, used the phrase that has gone all across the earth, "_scrap
of paper_," for a sacred treaty between nations, he was only making a
pungent practical application of the philosophy in question.

Do we regard self-preservation as the highest law for the individual?
Distinctly not. Here is a crowded theater and a sudden cry of fire,
with the ensuing panic: if strong men trample down and kill women and
children, in the effort to save their own lives, we regard them with
loathing and contempt. On the other hand, it is just this plea of
national self-preservation that the German regime has used in cynical
justification of its every atrocity--the initial violation of Belgium,
the making war ruthlessly on civil populations, the atrocious spying and
plotting in the bosom of neutral and friendly nations, the destruction
of monuments of art and devastation of the cities, fields, orchards and
forests of northern France, and finally the submarine warfare on the
world's shipping. No civilized human being would, for a moment, think
of using the plea of self-preservation to justify comparable conduct in
individual life.

Consider international diplomacy: much of it has been merely shrewd and
skillful lying. If you will review the list of the most famous
diplomats of Europe for the last thousand years, you will find that a
considerable portion of them won their fame and reputation by being a